February 9, 1943
Zofia Yamaika Dies Covering a Partisan Retreat
Historical context
On this day, February 9, 1943, Zofia Yamaika was killed near Radom while covering her partisan unit’s retreat from a German attack.
Archive record
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- Date
- February 9, 1943
- Verified sources
- 1
- Archive threads
- 5
On this day, German forces attacked a group of about fifty partisans near Radom. Zofia Yamaika, then 18, and two Polish fighters stayed to cover the rest of the unit as it pulled back. Armed with a machine gun, she held fire until the attackers were a few paces away. The position was overrun and she was killed. The unit escaped.
Yamaika was born in Warsaw in 1925 to a Hasidic family and joined the communist student club Spartacus as a teenager. After the Germans sealed the Warsaw ghetto, she trained with a smuggled pistol. When her parents were deported in July 1942, she escaped and joined the Lion partisans near Radom.
Research trail
Sources and further reading
- Zofia Yamaika · United States Holocaust Memorial Museum · Holocaust Encyclopedia View source
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